Google Wants To Go To The Moon by 2012

[FrostyBoy]

But Eli, what about this mission benefits future prospects for getting to the moon?

What about something structural - able to take photos and stay there permanently, rather than something mobile like a robot?

Once you have some shelter with oxygen and supplies, then a human could move in and take all the bloody photos and climb all the craters he wants.

[Eli]

Originally posted by Sn00py
But Eli, what about this mission benefits future prospects for getting to the moon?

First, if it's profitable then it's good enough in itself.

Second, huge publicity.

Third, while it's not the perfect first move towards private exploitation of the moon, it's still a move. If they use a SpaceX launch vehicle it would be the first completely private moon landing, demonstrating feasibility. That's great even if they land a mere radio transmitter.

And with Bigelow's LEO habitats going up at about the same time...

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by OzzyKP
I liked it.

(though you need to fix the 35 years thing...)

Oops

Thanks!

[OzzyKP]

I remember reading an article about Google in Time (i think) and in their office they had a big white board with all sorts of doodles and ideas and schemes written on it. In that drawing they had a picture of the moon with a big Google logo on it...

[Lorizael]

Originally posted by Whoha
And the moon won't have heavier elements because of how it was formed, so it won't be so useful.

Wikipedia says:

In terms of elements, the lunar crust is composed primarily of oxygen, silicon, magnesium, iron, calcium, and aluminium, but important minor and trace elements such as titanium, uranium, thorium, potassium, and hydrogen are present as well.

[DanS]

Carnegie Mellon is going to form a team to try to bag this prize. Have at it, Kuci!

Moments after Internet search giant Google Inc. announced it would bankroll a $30 million competition challenging private teams to land an unmanned rover on the moon, Carnegie Mellon University's robotic challenge king began assembling his team.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_527412.html

[Whoha]

Originally posted by Kataphraktoi


Piddly. During the mid 1960s it made up around 5% of the national budget. That is a huge decrease in actual purchase power. We are now spending 600+ billion on defense alone.






Im not challenging that there is water on the moon, but link? I couldnt find anything on google.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=water+on+the+moon&btnG=Search

Im sure im overlooking something

defense is down 2/3rds as well in percentage terms.

[Whoha]

Originally posted by Lorizael


Wikipedia says:

In terms of elements, the lunar crust is composed primarily of oxygen, silicon, magnesium, iron, calcium, and aluminium, but important minor and trace elements such as titanium, uranium, thorium, potassium, and hydrogen are present as well.

I don't dispute this.

[DanS]

It's just a joke. $17 billion per annum is piddly only in the eyes of whacked out bureaucrats and polytubbies with a jones to spend OPM.

[Kataphraktoi]

Dead serious. The number 17billion is meaningless without looking at the percentages.

[Kataphraktoi]

Originally posted by Whoha


defense is down 2/3rds as well in percentage terms.

2/3rds is alot less than a decrease from 5% to .5%. And unlike NASA the military's main enemy has gone to sleep.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by DanS
Carnegie Mellon is going to form a team to try to bag this prize. Have at it, Kuci!

Once the Grand Challenge is done

[DanS]

If I can ask, are you involved with that team?

[Whoha]

Originally posted by Kataphraktoi


2/3rds is alot less than a decrease from 5% to .5%. And unlike NASA the military's main enemy has gone to sleep.

Actually Nasa did its job, and put a man on the moon. No need for it to even exist anymore if you look at it that way . Nasa's main enemy was the Soviet space program.

If you were implying that military spending was consuming space exploration's resources that isn't true. Most people don't seem to want to spend a lot of money to send very small amounts of material 50 million miles away from us for some strange reason.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by DanS
If I can ask, are you involved with that team?

A little little bit. I wrote some code for them, but nothing that was going to end up on the car.